Superconductivity, superconducting materials and applications.

Oltean Gabriel Mihai

Group 2012
Faculty of Electronics and Information
Technology

1.Introduction
In 1911, while studying the properties of
matter at very low temperature, the Dutch physicist
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his team discovered that
the electrical resistance of mercury goes to zero
below 4.2 K (-269°C). This was the very first
observation of the phenomenon of superconductivity.
Below a certain “critical” temperature,
materials undergo transition into the superconducting
state, characterized by two basic properties: firstly,
they offer no resistance to the passage of electrical
current. Secondly, provided they are sufficiently weak,
external magnetic fields will not penetrate the
superconductor, but remain at its surface.
Fig. 1 Mercury Resistance Decrease as a Function of
Temperature

2.Physical Base
For many years it was believed that, except
for the fact that they had no electrical resistance
(i.e., that they had infinite electrical conductivity),
superconductors had the same properties as
normal materials. This belief was shattered in 1933
by the discovery that a superconductor is highly
diamagnetic; that is, it is strongly repelled by and
tends to expel a magnetic field. This phenomenon,
which is very strong in superconductors, is called
the Meissner effect for one of the two men who
discovered it.

In 1957, Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer Fig. 2 Meissner effect

proposed a quantum theory of superconductivity, known
as the BCS theory, for which they received a Nobel Prize.
 According to their theory electrons group into pairs through interaction with vibrations
of the lattice (so-called “phonons”), thus forming “Cooper pairs” which move around inside the
solid without friction. The solid can be seen
as a lattice of positive ions immersed in a
cloud of electrons.  As an electron passes
through this lattice, the ions move slightly,
attracted by the electron’s negative charge.
This movement generates an electrically
positive area which, in turn, attracts another
electron. 

Fig. 3 Cooper Pairs

But because the energy of the electron interaction is quite

weak and the pairs can be easily broken up by thermal energy – this is why superconductivity
usually occurs at a very low temperature. However, the BCS theory offers no explanation for
the existence of “high-temperature” superconductors around 80 K (-193°C) and above, for
which other electron coupling mechanisms must be invoked.
The critical temperature for superconductors is the temperature at which the electrical
resistivity of a metal drops to zero. The transition is so sudden and complete that it appears to
be a transition to a different phase of matter; this superconducting phase is described by the
BCS theory. Several materials exhibit superconducting phase transitions at low temperatures.
The highest critical temperature was about 23 K until the discovery in 1986 of some high
temperature superconductors.
There are thirty pure metals which exhibit zero resistivity at low temperatures and
have the property of excluding magnetic fields from the interior of the superconductor
(Meissner effect). They are called Type I superconductors. The superconductivity exists only
below their critical temperatures and below a critical magnetic field strength. Type I
superconductors are well described by the BCS theory.
Starting in 1930 with lead-bismuth alloys, a number of alloys were found which
exhibited superconductivity; they are called Type II superconductors. They were found to have
much higher critical fields and therefore could carry much higher current densities while
remaining in the superconducting state.
 The variations on barium-copper-oxide ceramics which achieved the superconducting
state at much higher temperatures are often just referred to as high
temperature superconductors and form a class of their own. Mat. Tc (K)
Rh 0
The 27 pure metals listed in the Table 1 are called Type I W 0.015
superconductors. The identifying characteristics are zero electrical Be** 0.026
resistivity below a critical temperature, zero internal magnetic field Ir 0.1
(Meissner effect), and a critical magnetic field above which Lu 0.1
superconductivity ceases. Hf 0.1
Ru 0.5
While instructive for understanding superconductivity, the Type I
Os 0.7
superconductors have been of limited practical usefulness because the
Mo 0.92
critical magnetic fields are so small and the superconducting state
Zr 0.546
disappears suddenly at that temperature. Type I superconductors are Cd 0.56
sometimes called "soft" superconductors while the Type II are "hard", U 0.2
maintaining the superconducting state to higher temperatures and Ti 0.39
magnetic fields. Zn 0.85
Superconductors made from alloys are called Type II Ga 1.083
superconductors(Table 2). Besides being mechanically harder than Type I Mat. Tc (K)
Gd* 1.1
superconductors, they exhibit much higher critical magnetic fields. Type II
Al 1.2
superconductors such as niobium-titanium (NbTi) are used in the
Pa 1.4
construction of high field superconducting magnets.
Th 1.4
Re 1.4
Tl 2.39
Material Transition Critical In 3.408
Temp (K) Field (T)
Sn 3.722
NbTi 10 15
Hg 4.153
PbMoS 14.4 6.0
V3Ga 14.8 2.1 Ta 4.47
NbN 15.7 1.5 La 6.00
V3Si 16.9 2.35 Pb 7.193
Nb3Sn 18.0 24.5
Nb3Al 18.7 32.4
Nb3(AlGe) 20.7 44
Nb3Ge 23.2 38
Table 1
Table 2

The discovery of high temperature superconductors came when Alex Müller and Georg
Bednorz of the IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, Switzerland created a ceramic material
that was superconductive at 30 degrees Kelvin. Ceramic materials are expected to be
insulators -- certainly not superconductors, but this was just what was found by studying the
conductivity of a lanthanum-barium-copper oxide ceramic in 1986.
The high temperature superconductors are ceramic materials with layers of copper-
oxide spaced by layers containing barium and other atoms. The yttrium compound is
somewhat unique in that it has a regular
crystal structure while the lanthanum version
is classified as a solid solution. The yttrium
compound is often called the 1-2-3
superconductor because of the ratios of its
constituents.
There have been two representative
theories for high-temperature or
unconventional superconductivity.
Firstly, weak coupling theory suggests
superconductivity emerges from
antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in a doped
system. According to this theory, the pairing
wave function of the cuprate HTS should have
a dx2-y2 symmetry. Thus, determining
whether the pairing wave function has d-wave
Fig. 4 Y-Ba2- Cu3- O7 Superconductor
symmetry is essential to test the spin fluctuation
mechanism.
S e c o n d l y , t h
consisting
of BCS-type (s-
wave
symmetry)

Fig. 5 Antiferromagnetic Spin Fluctuation

superconductors can enhance the superconductivity by itself. By introducing an additional

tunnelling interaction between each layer, this model successfully explained the anisotropic
symmetry of the order parameter as well as the emergence of the HTS.

Fig. 6 Wave symmetry

The thermal properties of superconductors indicate that there is a gap in the

distribution of energy levels available to the electrons, and so a finite amount of energy,
designated as delta (Δ), must be supplied to an electron to excite it. This energy is maximum
(designated Δ0) at absolute zero and changes little with increase of temperature until the
transition temperature is approached, where Δ decreases to zero, its value in the normal state.
The BCS theory predicts an energy gap with just this type of temperature dependence.
According to the BCS theory, there is a type of electron pairing (electrons of opposite
spin acting in unison) in the superconductor that is important in interpreting many
superconducting phenomena. The electron pairs, called Cooper pairs, are broken up as the
superconductor is heated. Each time a pair is broken, an amount of energy that is at least as
much as the energy gap (Δ) must be supplied to each of the two electrons in the pair, so an
energy at least twice as great (2Δ) must be
supplied to the superconductor. The value of
twice the energy gap at 0 K (which is 2Δ 0) might
be assumed to be higher when the transition
temperature of the superconductor is higher. In
fact, the BCS theory predicts a relation of this
type—namely, that the energy supplied to the
superconductor at absolute zero would be 2Δ0 =
3.53 k×Tc, where k is Boltzmann’s constant (1.38
× 10−23 joule per kelvin). In the high-Tc cuprate
compounds, values of 2Δ0 range from
approximately three to eight multiplied by k×Tc.
The effective energy gap in
superconductors can be measured in microwave
absorption experiments.
 Fig. 7 Energy Gaps as a Function of Temperature

In recent years, researchers have been pushing the temperature limits on how cold a
superconducting material needs to be to function. The current record holder is a compound
made of sulphur and hydrogen, which can conduct electricity care-free at a relatively warm
203 Kelvin (-70 degrees Celsius or -94 Fahrenheit). The only catch is it requires pressures of 1.5
million atmospheres to form.

3. Applications
Aside from specific industrial uses, the most widely used application for
superconductors is an MRI machine commonly found in hospitals. Only a superconductive
system could allow the energy required to generate a magnetic field that powers an MRI,
which can be anywhere from 2,500 times to 10,000 times the strength of Earth’s magnetic
field.

Fig. 8 Superconducting magnet used in MRI

Besides
the MRI
machine, the most
well-known use of superconductive materials is in particle accelerators, like the kind used in
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or its proposed Future Circular Collider. Sending trillions of
particles around 27km of tunnels at speeds close to the speed of light, keeping the particle
beam stable and moving along the precise path requires a magnetic field of immense power,
more than 100,000 times the Earth’s magnetic field. This requires an enormous amount of
energy, the kind that superconducting coils can provide.
 Maglev (magnetic levitation)
trains also use superconductive
materials. These work because a
superconductor repels a magnetic
field so a magnet will float above a
superconductor – this virtually
eliminates the friction between the
train and the track. However, there
are safety concerns about the
strong magnetic fields used as these
could be a risk to human health.

Fig. 9 Maglev Train

Another application of superconductivity is electric power transmission for example:

The Holbrook Superconductor Project is a project to design and build the world's first
production superconducting transmission power cable. The cable was commissioned in late
June 2008. The suburban Long Island electrical substation is fed by about 600-meter-long
underground cable system consists of about 99 miles of high-temperature superconductor
wire manufactured by American Superconductor, installed underground and chilled with liquid
nitrogen greatly reducing the costly right-of-way required to deliver additional power.
American Superconductor was chosen for The Tres Amigas Project, the United States’
first renewable energy market hub.[7] The Tres Amigas renewable energy market hub will be a
multi-mile, triangular electricity pathway of superconductor electricity pipelines capable of
transferring and balancing many gigawatts of power between three U.S. power grids (the
Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection). Unlike
traditional powerlines, it will transfer power as DC instead of AC current. It will be located in
Clovis, New Mexico.
Essen, Germany has the world's longest superconducting power cable in production at
1 kilometer. It is a 10 kV liquid nitrogen cooled cable. The cable is smaller than an equivalent
110 kV regular cable and the lower voltage has the additional benefit of smaller transformers.

4. Interesting Youtube materials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5EoUD-BIss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXHczjOg06w

5. Bibliography
(Links for documentation and images)
https://home.cern/science/engineering/superconductivity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/superconductivity(Frederick
E. Wang, in Bonding Theory for Metals and Alloys (Second
Edition), 2019, Frederick E. Wang, in Bonding Theory for Metals
and Alloys, 2005)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/coop.html
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-relation-of-Cooper-pair-with-superconductivity
https://www.electrical4u.com/meissner-effect/
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/scond.html
https://www.britannica.com/science/superconductivity/Transition-temperatures
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solids/hitc.html#c2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity
https://interestingengineering.com/superconductivity-what-is-it-and-why-it-matters-
to-our-future
https://www.sciencealert.com/superconductivity
https://www.rsc.org/Education/Teachers/Resources/Inspirational/resources/4.5.2.pdf
https://www.slideserve.com/haile/antiferromagnetic-spin-fluctuation-and-
superconductivity (slide 4)
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-sketch-of-order-parameter-symmetry-in-a-
conventional-superconductors-b-high-T_fig2_254853036
https://www.slideshare.net/ArchanaKoshy/mri-physics-ii (slide 15)
https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/280982464237503986/